The NRL got a taste of what life in the Kerry Stokes-controlled town of Perth will be like for the Bears, with the city’s only newspaper giving rugby league short shrift on the day of State of Origin II.
In a telling indication of the threat rugby league poses to the AFL-aligned The West Australian newspaper, owned by Stokes’ Seven West Media which broadcasts Aussie Rules, the publication all but ignored the biggest show in town.
The West Australian relegated its State of Origin coverage to the last page of its sports section and chose to mock the Origin concept on the front page on the day of the game despite 54,000 locals purchasing tickets for the 60,000 seat sellout at Optus Stadium on Wednesday night.
The only article about the Origin game was alongside the escort service advertisements.
At first glance, a pointer on the front page of the newspaper appears to be a promotion of the NRL’s big game with the headline “State of Origin’s back”. However, it references “WA’s Dockers v Victoria’s Bombers – Thursday night Optus Stadium”, a promotion of the AFL game in town the day after the Origin encounter at the same venue.
There was not a single mention of the State of Origin game in Tuesday’s The West Australian, while there was a small story written by a wire service journalist at the bottom of one of the last pages in sport on Monday.
Kerry Stokes, Peter V’landys and Perth Bears CEO Anthony De Cegilie.
The West Australian editor Chris Dore, who has formerly worked for News Corp newspapers in Sydney and Brisbane, responded to this masthead’s questioning of the editorial coverage in his publication.
He referred to a lack of league coverage on the WA Today website owned by Nine Entertainment – the publisher of this masthead – where there were two rugby league stories on its home page when checked in the afternoon.
“Mate the obsession with how The West covers league is ludicrous,” Dore said.
“No one outside of rugby league writers in Sydney cares. If you have any doubts about that check out your own local website WA Today right now. See how you go finding Origin or Bears yarns. The point is rugby league is simply not a mainstream sport in this town.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton at the Western Australian Leadership Matters breakfast with businessman Kerry Stokes and the West Australian editor-in-chief Chris Dore.Credit: James Brickwood
“Just the facts. Good on them for having a crack here. We have nothing against the game despite the carry on from [Peter] V’landys acolytes in the Sydney media about our coverage. It’s just not remotely main game and never will be. Mate, I edited the Tele (The Daily Telegraph) and the Courier-Mail – I’m a Queenslander.”
“If we had a league readership here we would be covering it. In the paper today. Do you think a game of rugby league between two interstate teams is more relevant to WA readers than what we placed in the valuable space available in our sport section?”
The coverage in WA newspapers is a stark contrast to the attention State of Origin received in Perth in its previous two ventures into Western Australia, where the local newspaper rallied behind rugby league and even included a photo of the Blues win on the front page of the paper the day after the match.
In the lead up to the last Origin game in Perth back in 2019, the newspaper ran a story headlined: “Why the time is right for rugby league to plant a flag and start a new NRL team in Perth”.
Kerry Stokes, Peter V’landys and Anthonly De Ceglie.Credit: Monique Westermann
The mood around rugby league in Perth has since changed as Stokes come to terms with the threat rugby league poses to the AFL – the sporting product his media company invests so heavily in.
Of the 60,000 fans expected at Optus Stadium, 54,000 of them are locals with just 6000 fans travelling interstate for the game. This columnist has been in Perth since Monday and the support from the locals towards the Bears and rugby league has been an eye-opener.
Australian Queensland cricket legend Mitchell Johnson, who now lives in Perth, spoke strongly about the interest in rugby league from the locals when chatting off-air before he appeared on Freddie and the Eighth on Tuesday.
You wouldn’t know it judging by the local newspaper or Channel Seven, who recently ordered Perth Bears CEO Anthony De Ceglie to be cut out of shots at the announcement of Mal Meninga as the inaugural coach.
The Seven West Media snub comes after the “Bad news Bears” headline they whacked on the front page of the newspaper on the morning of the team’s official announcement last month.
The bad blood between the AFL-aligned Seven West Media and the NRL has been exacerbated by Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys’ decision to poach the company’s national news director De Ceglie as the Bears CEO.
De Ceglie has declined to get into a slanging match with his previous bosses at Seven West Media, where he worked for both Channel Seven and The West Australian newspaper.
Fans flocked into the CBD for Tuesday’s joint press conference in Perth.Credit: Getty
“The Perth Bears are looking forward to earning the respect of WA sports lovers and earning our right to be in the sports pages of The West Australian alongside the AFL teams,” he said on Wednesday.
“If we’re winning on the park and off the park, if fans are turning up to our games and we’ve created a club that stands for strong values then the newspaper hopefully has to cover us. If we’re doing these things and they’re still not covering us then the only people missing out will be the readers.
“It’s not that Perth is an AFL state. Perth is a sports state. West Australians love sport. They love Aussie Rules, tennis, basketball and NRL. They show up to all sports and are passionate about all sports. There’s no rule that says you can’t barrack for an AFL team and an NRL team.”
